Man safe after night in Catlins bush

A 73-year-old Dunedin man who spent more than 21 hours in the open was found safe and well yesterday after failing to return from a day trip to the Catlins on Monday.

Ian Smith, a retired design draughtsman, sparked a search and rescue (SAR) operation involving a helicopter, two boats, a police dog team and 35 SAR volunteers called from the Catlins and Balclutha after leaving the track while trying to videotape the Catlins coastline.

Mr Smith started his trip at 10.30am on Monday, but found the track more overgrown than he had expected.

"I thought I'd shoot down [the track] and be back before lunchtime, but I started having falls, and got tangled in blackberry."

He had given his wife, Judith, the GPS co-ordinates before leaving for the Catlins, which helped police define the search area.

"I tell my wife that's where I'm going, and I stay in that area," he said.

"As soon as I heard the siren I thought, `Ah, Jude's rung up and they're on the job.

We're going to get found'."

SAR incident controller Constable Murray Hewitson, of Owaka, said Mrs Smith phoned police when her husband had not returned by 7pm on Monday.

"I contacted [the Cathedral Caves administrator] and gave her the car details.

"She popped up and said the car was still here," he said.

"It took an hour to call around the volunteers, and the search didn't start till 11pm."

Const Hewitson said it was pitch-black by then and there were several bluffs in the search area.

"We found one footprint.

"We checked the main route and both ends of the beach.

"At 1am, we brought the teams back in and the search was suspended at 2am, and started again at 6am."

A police dog team and a helicopter joined the search about noon yesterday.

Helicopters Otago pilot Greg Shirley and crewman Doug Flett started grid searches of the 800ha search area between the Chaslands Highway, down Pratt Rd to the Cathedral Caves, along the coast to the Tautuku peninsula and up the Tautuku River, while Senior Constable Peter Hanlin and his dog Edge, of the Dunedin police dog squad, picked up Mr Smith's scent.

The missing man was found at 3.15pm yesterday by Owaka SAR volunteer Steve "Humpy" Hurring, about 500m from the road on Flaxy Track, near the Cathedral Caves.